As business continuity is the object of enterprise development, making more profit for the stakeholders is the goal of executive managers. Due to government-authorized monopolies, the natural gas utilities in Taiwan lack the motivation to change their business administration. However, privatization for public utilities and the breaking of monopolies are the trends of globalization. Furthermore, the decreasing demand for natural gas due to the development of alternative energy sources recquires imminent enterprise innovation in natural gas utilities. Although a strategic alliance is an important strategy for an enterprise to obtain a competitive advantage, there is no study about natural gas utilities using a strategic alliance for competitive advantage in Taiwan. From a study of the literature, this research assembled four important aspects (motivation, evaluating and selecting alliances, setting the structure and activities of alliances, and managerial maneuvering) for the success of a strategic alliance in natural gas utilities. Based on the Delphi method, thirty-three key success factors were filtered from these four aspects. These factors include prudently evaluating and selecting alliances, and clearly setting the structures and activities of alliances which should be considered by the natural gas utilities and other enterprises that would like to cooperate with the natural gas utilities. These factors may help the authorities to formulate amendments to industrial policy for natural gas utilities in the future.
